From the border to Mexico's capital: San Diego chamber trip aims to build bridges

Nikia Clarke, executive director of the World Trade Center San Diego joins San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastélum at a news conference held on February 6, 2017 to highlight the importance of the border-region economy.

Nikia Clarke, executive director of the World Trade Center San Diego joins San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastélum at a news conference held on February 6, 2017 to highlight the importance of the border-region economy.

With Donald Trump’s presidency creating a rift in U.S.-Mexico relations, dozens of San Diegans and bajacalifornianos are joining forces this week in Mexico’s capital, aiming to showcase their strong bilateral relationship and win support for border projects.

Close to 90 people are making the trek from the border to Mexico City for three days of meetings with high-level Mexican officials that begin Monday. They carry a common message: that neither Trump’s plans for a fortified border wall and nor his call to re-negotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement will change the fact that Tijuana and San Diego are intensely inter-dependent on many fronts.

The delegation led by the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce includes the mayors of San Diego and Tijuana. Also on the roster are business leaders, customs brokers, logistics experts, real estate developers, and others seeking to maintain strong cross-border ties even amid strains at the national level.

The issues they champion are at once local and international in nature: trade, tourism, tech jobs, plans for a cross-border railroad and a new border crossing, the need for resources to fortify sewage collection in Tijuana and prevent cross-border flows.

“We see the critical need for collaboration,” said Paola Avila, the chamber’s vice president of international business affairs, one of the trip’s organizers. Members of the delegation “share that same vision, no matter what party they belong to, no matter the level of government they serve, or if they’re in the private sector or the public sector.”

Business and political leaders in the San Diego-Baja California region have for years touted their strong ties. Earlier this month, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastélum pledged to continue working together through a renewed memorandum of understanding.

But for all the collaboration, the two communities are divided by an international border, and solving local problems often means gaining resources and support from the U.S. and Mexican federal governments. Thus the the twice-a-year chamber lobbying trips — in the spring to Mexico City and in the fall to Washington D.C. — allowing Tijuana and San Diego to speak with a common voice as they present their demands.

This trip is the first since Trump has been in the White House, and participants say that has changed the flavor of the gathering.

The president’s plans to build a wall along the entire border — and statements that he intends to charge Mexico for the cost — has caused anger in Mexico. The president’s calls for a border tax and the renegotiation of the NAFTA have created uncertainty over the future — and generated a measure of anxiety among border leaders.

“Certainly there is a new level of urgency that they feel right now,” said Chris Wilson, deputy director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. “There is no doubt that people feel there is a lot on the line right now in the U.S.-Mexico relationship.”

Mayor Gastélum, interviewed Sunday morning on the flight down from Tijuana, said the aim of this week’s Mexico City trip “is mainly to send a very clear message that the Tijuana-San Diego mega-region can work together well.”

Showcasing the unity can demonstrate the importance of both economic and cultural ties, and “regardless of what’s said outside our cities, we are building bridges to strengthen that relationship,” he said.

Groups represented on the chamber trip include the San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce, Smart Border Coalition, Tijuana Innovadora, Tijuana Economic Development Council, San Diego Port Tenants Association and the Sportfishing Association of Southern California. Also on the trip are representatives of state and local government agencies: the cities of Tijuana, San Diego, Ensenada, Imperial Beach, Coronado, the Port of San Diego, the California Department of Transportation.

The Union-Tribune asked four participants to share what’s on their mind as they prepare for the meetings.

Frank Carrillo, president and CEO of SIMNSA Health Plan, a Mexican company licensed in the United States that sees 1,000 patients a day in Tijuana and Mexicali. Carrillo said he has been on every chamber trip to Mexico City.

“The first thing is to bring a message of unity,” said Carrillo. “A message that we here in this region believe in bridges, not walls, that we do not agree with the policies of the White House.”

SIMNSA patients are primarily U.S. residents who come to Tijuana and Mexicali for treatment, 70 percent of them insured. Carrillo worries that Trump’s statements and policies could bring a backlash against those who visit Mexico.

“The message to the Mexican government is that they must not adopt the mentality of Mr. Trump that we’re beginning to see in some. Rather than making it easier for Americans to visit us, they’re beginning to make it more difficult,” said Carrillo, who was born in Mexico but came to the United States as a child.

“Mexico needs to know that we are united, that we are with them, that we are not against them,” said Carrillo. “It’s a message that’s badly needed, much more so in Mexico City, they’re not as close as we are here. They need the reassurance they are not in this thing alone.”

Eduardo Acosta, president of the Otay Mesa Chamber of Commerce.

A major issue for the chamber is the planned Otay Mesa East crossing, a commercial and passenger port of entry that would be the first tolled crossing on the California-Mexico border. The project is precedent-setting on several levels, and is being planned jointly by the U.S. and Mexican federal governments.

For Acosta, the trip to Mexico City is a chance to get up to date on what is happened in Mexico at the federal level. “I want to know if they are on the same page as the U.S. government,” he said.

Acosta also wants to hear first-hand from Mexican officials about NAFTA. “Will it be updated, upgraded, will it be canceled overnight?” asked Acosta. “I would like to see where Mexico is with that.”

Acosta, a customs broker, said he found reassurance from U.S. officials during a recent trip to Washington, D.C. “The political people, they’re surprised we’re so worried about NAFTA and the border,” Acosta said. “They say, ‘NAFTA’s not going to change overnight, it’s going to be a transition thing,’” Acosta said. “My take is, ‘OK, Mexican government, that’s what I saw in Washington two weeks ago. Are you guys on the same page?’”

Eguía’s group focuses on attracting foreign direct investment to the city. “NAFTA needs to be refurbished,” said Eguía, who currently is more concerned about the effects of Trump’s plan to lower U.S. corporate taxes from 35 percent to as low as 15 percent. “What would be the strategy of the Mexican government if that goes through?” she wondered.

DEITAC is also seeking support in Mexico City for an initiative to draw high-skilled foreign workers to Tijuana — focusing on people that U.S. companies have been wanting to hire, but who have been unsuccessful in obtaining a limited number H1B visas for these workers.

DEITAC proposes allowing them to work for those same companies from Tijuana, bringing a new pool of talent to the city.

“This offers the possibility to bring in direct investment, but in another mode,” Eguia said.

Kenia Zamarripa, director of marketing and international affairs at Sportfishing Association of California.

Maintaining strong lines of communication with federal officials in Mexico City is critical for the association, she said. Its members are commercial fishing tour operators in southern California whose clients often want to cross into Mexican waters — and that requires compliance with Mexican regulations.

The group’s previous efforts have led to a change in policy by Mexican immigration officials, allowing U.S. fishing groups to obtain tourist visas online rather than being forced to stop at a Mexican port before they head the Coronado Islands or other popular Mexican fishing areas off the Baja California coast.

But the group has faced a new challenge since last December, when Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto established a new biosphere reserve off the coast the Baja California that includes the Coronado Islands and Todos Santos Island, a famed surfing spot off of Ensenada. Fishing in the protected areas requires a special license, and association members are concerned about the additional cost and paperwork.

Traveling with a large bi-national national delegation has helped raise the association’s profile, and win the attention of high-level officials, Zamarripa said.

Without that “they might see us as a little group that has this need, that it’s not that important,” she said. “By us going as a group, they can see how big this is.”